A wireless device can communicate over a wireless communication network by establishing communication with an access node of the network. The wireless device can initiate communication with the access node using one of a plurality of available frequency bands. The frequency bands can include frequency bands within the same radio access technology, frequency bands within differing radio access technologies, frequency bands provided by the same network provider, and/or frequency bands provided by different network providers.
While a wireless device can be configured to communicate with a plurality of frequency bands, generally a wireless device can only establish communications over the network using one frequency band at a time. While the wireless device has established communication with the access node using one frequency band, the wireless device can scan for an alternative frequency band to establish communication with the network. A wireless device can scan for alternative frequency bands during a gap in communication transmissions based on a monitoring gap sequence.
During the gap in communication transmissions, the wireless device can scan for all available alternative frequency bands while the data to be transmitted can be stored in a buffer at the access node and/or the wireless device. At the conclusion of the scanning gap, data that has been stored in the buffers can be introduced into the traffic flow. When a large amount of data is introduced to the traffic flow, uneven data flows or “bursts” can occur that can lead to data transmission delays, jitter in data communication, and ultimately deterioration of application performance.